Are you struggling to manage underperformance on your team?

In this solo episode of the Happier at Work podcast, host Aoife O'Brien dives into the challenging topic of dealing with underperformers in the workplace. Drawing on her experiences as a career and culture strategist, Aoife unpacks the reasons why underperformance happens, how it impacts you as a leader or teammate, and the practical steps you can take to address it compassionately and effectively. Aoife also tackles common issues, such as unclear expectations and feedback aversion, and emphasises the importance of courageous conversations and setting healthy boundaries.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

• Common reasons why underperformance occurs, from blind spots and lack of clarity to feedback aversion and power dynamics.
• The value of difficult conversations in driving individual and team growth.
• Tips for documenting specific examples to support constructive feedback and performance discussions.
• When and how to escalate issues and set boundaries to protect your own workload and well-being.

Related Topics Covered:

Purpose at Work, Employee Wellbeing, Boundaries at Work

 Connect with Aoife O’Brien | Host of Happier at Work®:

• Website 
• LinkedIn 
• YouTube 

Related Episodes You’ll Love:

Episode 235: Empowering your Career and Overcoming Hurdles with Aoife O’Brien

Episode 240: Meaningful Work through Simplification with Lisa Bodell

Episode 242: Transforming Mental Health Conversations at Work with Melissa Doman

About Happier at Work®

Happier at Work® is the podcast for business leaders who want to create meaningful, human-centric workplaces. Hosted by Aoife O’Brien, the show explores leadership, career clarity, imposter syndrome, workplace culture, and employee engagement — helping you and your team thrive.

If you enjoy podcasts like WorkLife with Adam Grant, The Happiness Lab, or Squiggly Careers, you’ll love Happier at Work®.

Website: https://happieratwork.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappierAtWorkHQ

Mentioned in this episode:

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Have you ever had to deal with someone who is underperforming at work? Maybe they're not pulling their weight, maybe they're not clear on what's expected of them. But eventually you start to think, maybe you're the problem, maybe this has something to do with me. This is exactly what I'm going to be talking about today. I'll be talking about the why, why this happens, how it impacts on you, and what are some specific steps that you can take. You are listening to the Happier at Work podcast, the career and cult podcast for people First Leaders. I'm your host, Aoife o' Brien. I'm a career and culture strategist for commercial leaders and teams. So, first of all, let's talk about why this might happen to begin with.

So maybe this person has a blind spot. Maybe they don't really know what's going on and they haven't received feedback to let them know that this is what's happening. I know, certainly I've worked in organizations and I'm sure you can relate as well where, where there is an underperformer who just gets passed from manager to manager or team to team, and no one really knows quite how to deal with them. And so the issue never gets addressed or that person has never received the feedback and they're completely oblivious to what's going on. So that's number one, that they could have this blind spot because more than likely someone has never given them that feedback. Number two then is a lack of clarity. So, again, I've dealt with this when I have been a manager, a leader of a team, and, you know, when people are not really clear on what is expected of them. And this is something I wish I had known when I was a leader, that sometimes our expectations are not clear.

We assume that people know what is expected of them. We assume they know. So one example I have to share is during a team meeting, one of the team members shared something that she thought was absolutely revolutionary. She thought, wow, this is, you know, I have to share this in the team. And all the time I was thinking to myself, but that's actually outlined in your job description, you should be doing this anyway. But it was obvious from what she had said that she didn't know that it was part of her role to be doing that anyway. So I think, you know, not to blame ourselves, but to be really clear when we're setting expectations like, this is what is part of your role. This is what it looks like to go above and beyond.

Side note, I did a webinar a few weeks ago on exactly this, how to set those really clear expectations and how to look at them at various different levels. So what are our expectations of ourselves, what are our expectations of others, and what are other people's expectations of us as well? Now, the third why around this is feedback aversion. And again, I did webinar on feedback not too long ago and it's really, you know, who are those people? And this can be myself as well, depending on the context, that you just get a shiver down your spine when you hear that term feedback. And people have shared with me on that webinar that they don't want to get feedback in case all of their fears come to life. But the beauty about feedback is that when we get feedback, we are aware of something and then we can take action towards solving it. Kind of tied in with that first point about the blind spots. It's so, so important to seek out that feedback, but it's also really important to share that feedback with people. As Brene Brown says, being clear is kind.

If you're withholding feedback because you're afraid of hurting someone's feelings or you want to be the nice person, then you're avoiding these difficult conversations. And it's so important to have those think of it as a gift. This is something that may hurt in the moment, but it's something that's going to stand to this person in the long term. So do give that feedback to them. And if you're the kind of person who avoids feedback, try and seek that out. Because when you get that feedback, then and only then can you start making action towards making change. Then the fourth aspect is maybe it's something to do with power dynamics or politics. So again, I was managing someone previously and this person used to go above my head constantly to go and deal with my manager rather than dealing with me directly.

She didn't want to have anything to do with me, so she went above my head. And the disappointing thing here was that she actually made a lot of mistakes in front of my manager. And then my manager fed back to me that I had to feed back to her all of these things that were going wrong, you know, so it was quite a stressful situation that she was going above my head, did not want to deal with me, and then I was the one who had to provide that feedback, that she was making all of these horrendous mistakes at work as well. So maybe there's some sort of a power dynamic or some sort of politics going on where the person is not dealing with you directly. Maybe they are a colleague that you have to deal with on a regular basis, but you're not necessarily directly managing them. And so you have, or at least you feel you have less influence over them and what they get up to on their day to day work. So these are some of the reasons why these people can end up being underperformers. Or maybe they're simply in the wrong role.

So that's, you know, a story, a conversation for a different day. But the impact that it has on us, then we can feel like we're second guessing ourselves. Maybe we're the ones in the wrong. Maybe you're feeling like you're totally gasless, like, am I the one who's actually in the wrong here? Maybe I'm not explaining things correctly. Maybe it's all my fault. And we tend to blame ourselves and second guess ourselves as well. Another impact that can happen here is that we take on additional work. So rather than exposing this person to the wider team or to your manager or to the leaders, you're covering up for the mistakes that they make, or you are taking on additional work, either covering up the mistakes or doing the work that they were too slow to do or that they didn't have time to do, whatever it might be, but you're covering up in some way, which is having a knock on impact on your health and your own workload as well.

And then the other area is that we're avoiding those difficult conversations. And I know, certainly I have done this in the past when I worked in corporate work where there's a difficult conversation that needs to be had, you know that it needs to be had, and probably the other person knows that this difficult conversation needs to be had. But you're both avoiding these difficult conversations because you feel like it's too hard. And again, another side note, coincidentally I did a free webinar on this a few months ago as well about how to have those difficult conversations. I'm calling them courageous conversations because it takes courage to be able to speak up. It takes courage to be able to have those conversations and to speak what is unspoken essentially all the while this is going on. It can be eating away at your confidence. Maybe you're feeling more insecure, Maybe it's impacting on your sense of fairness at work because you're taking on an extra share of the workload and it has a negative impact then on you and how you're showing up and at work.

But what can we actually do about it? So first, I mean, for Me, the first thing with everything is to be aware of it. Are you aware that this is happening? Are you aware why it's happening? If you pick under the surface a little bit, do you understand more about why this is going on? Is it about expectations? Is it about feedback aversion? Is it a blind spot that they have because they haven't received this feedback up to now? Is it genuinely an area of weakness for them? So it's a developmental area rather than an area of strength that they need more, you know, that they need additional support with this as well. So when we reflect on these things, we can think about whether the expectations we've set are really clear and that they're understood. When we're reflecting, we can also think about, well, what are the objective outcomes here? You know, what are some of the KPIs, some of the OKRs that we can measure this person against, and whether or not they have been meeting those specific targets that have been set for them. And those are very objective things that, you know, this is what has been set and you haven't been meeting them, which makes those difficult conversations all the easier. So if you're having those conversations, setting out clear expectations up front, having those measurable outcomes that are objective as well, that you can talk about those things, but also think about, well, what has been the impact on the rest of the team? Has the rest of the team had to cover? Have the clients been impacted by this? Because the person is not pulling their weight, they're not doing the same level of service as other people, for example. So thinking about all of these things and reflecting, we can also then document. So having some very specific examples to share, and I know this is something I was quite poor at when I worked in corporate, but having very specific examples to share, you know, whether that is related Back to the OKRs, the KPIs that I mentioned, or whether it is related to the expectations that you have set, whether it's missed deadlines, you know, all of these things add up to build a story that you can share back with this person in the form of feedback, in the form of having that difficult conversation.

So it's, it forms as evidence, for want of a better word, that you have to say, this is how you're not performing. And then it's all about communicating. So having that open dialogue with someone using a specific framework. One of the ones that I like is the SBI framework, but there are lots of different feedback frameworks that you can share. And when delivering feedback, it's. It's most important to focus on I. And, you know, this is what I see. This is my perspective and this, this is the impact on me, this is the impact on the team as opposed to you are a bad person or you are not performing.

It's about I. It's always about I and the impact that it is having on the team. When you're communicating with someone as well, this is a really important time to talk about what those shared goals are. And the shared goals may be part of, part of the relationship as well, if you want to think about it like that. So this shared goal is to have an open and honest working relationship with someone. And that's the whole reason that you want to have this conversation with them. And then if that doesn't work, maybe it's time to escalate. Maybe it's time to start setting boundaries and not covering up for their mistakes.

Saying no where you need to say no, supporting them where you can, but not overextending yourself, but then also escalating it to someone else who could be able to support you with this conversation or to get involved in that. So dealing with underperformers at work, I'd love to know what has been your experience of doing that? Have you tried any of these techniques before? Do you do something a little bit differently? As I mentioned at the start, this is definitely something I wish I knew when I worked in corporate because I've dealt with several underperformers and for me it was just quite stressful. And you assume sometimes that people know that underperforming and that they're just kind of doing it to take the piss a little bit. But actually that's often not the case. As I mentioned at the start, it could be a blind spot. They are not open to feedback. It could be an expectations issue. So there's loads of things that could be going on to drive that.

But I would love to know about your experiences of underperformers at work. As always, do get involved in the conversation. I love, I love seeing your comments, whether it's on a comment on Spotify, whether it's a feedback that you've left me on one of the podcast platforms, whether it's a comment on YouTube under the video or whether it's in getting involved in the conversation on LinkedIn, because I always post on LinkedIn about the podcast. So if we're not connected there, do feel free to reach out. And I'd love to know what's one thing that you're going to do differently as a result of listening or watching today, it.